British Colombia Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
What's Cool: Browsing hand-made crafts on Vendors' Row
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Named for a hulking, wrecked vessel that once sat on the sand, Wreck Beach is the shore of choice for Vancouver students. Just several hundred steps below the University of British Columbia, the three-mile-long beach is a wildlife and nesting area for both bald eagles and bald bodies. Other sections of the beach assume a more carnival-like atmosphere. One stretch on the beach known as Vendors' Row is a one-stop shop for souvenirs, refreshments an...
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 Caribbean You’ve probably know Antigua: resorts aplenty, more than 300 beaches, a favorite with sailors… But what about Barbuda? In the West Indian dual nation of Antigua and Barbuda, she is the forgotten stepchild – and for some sophisticated travelers, that’s all the more reason to count their blessings.
Barbuda is actually about half the size of her glamorous sibling (and only a 20-minute flight away). However, as sister islands go, A & B are worlds apart. Barbuda has more than its share of glorious (and virtually deserted) beaches, but most of the island is low and scrubby, and the small populat...
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 France Longing for the bygone, uncrowded days of the Cote de Azur? Look no further than offshore, to Iles d’Hyeres, a trio of islands that still proffer the best of the South of France: long days of sun, warm water, and Provencal cuisine. The largest and most popular of the group is Porquerolles, which in 1912 was purchased as a wedding present by a wealthy Frenchman – who promptly planted a large vineyard. Today the island and its small village remain a place where the good things in life (food, wine, sailing) are still the cornerstones of day-to-day living.
A 20-minute ferry ride from the mainl...
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 Cayman Brac is just about the same size as Manhattan (2 miles wide, 12 miles long), but the skyline that gives this Caribbean its name is natural: a sheer limestone bluff (brac in Gaelic) that runs the center of the island and sets it apart from its low-lying sister isles, Grand Cayman and Little Cayman.
Fewer than 2,000 residents make their home on "The Brac," and like its sister isles, the island is best known as a destination for divers who really want to put in some bottom time. Wall and reef dives abound, along with the wreck of a Russian destroyer (renamed the M.V. Captain Keith Tibb...
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 Cook Islands Rarotonga is one of those islands that old South Seas hands recalled fondly when the talk around the bar turned to the quintessential island paradise. Fact is, the island can still lay a pretty good claim to that title. Long a favorite with sailors, Rarotonga, with its volcanic landscape of jagged peaks and deep valleys, is the only mountainous island in the Cook Islands. Its interior is mostly lush rain forest, and miles of white-sand beaches and an uncommonly clear lagoon fringe its shore.
Dive shops on the island lead trips to about 40 sites that cover the full gamut of the water world:...
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